Walker's four-year contract is worth $17.5 million with $8.6 million guaranteed. In 2012, Walker dropped 11 passes across 19 games, including the playoffs. He only had 26 catches. Walker's "catch rate" of 54.2 percent was third worst in the NFL among tight ends with at least 40 targets, behind only Kellen Davis and Tony Scheffler. I've seen it written that Walker will create "matchup problems" for defenses, which is difficult to fathom because he's only 6-foot-0 and 242 pounds.

Walker is a good run blocker. He has a big name because he played on a Super Bowl team, but he's not a good receiver. The Titans already have blocking specialist Craig Stevens at tight end. If they fancy Walker capable of adding a pass-catching element to their tight end corps, GM Ruston Webster will almost certainly live to regret this signing."

Coming off a career-best season in his one-year stint with the Raiders, Wheeler received a five-year, $26 million payday from Miami, with a $7 million signing bonus. Like virtually all of the Dolphins' 2013 free-agent contracts, the first two years of Wheeler's contract are fully guaranteed.

28 years old, Wheeler is an athletic linebacker with range but has always struggled versus the run. At 6-foot-2 and 240 pounds, it's difficult to imagine Wheeler giving Aaron Hernandez or Rob Gronkowski trouble in pass coverage. Wheeler is a fine player, but how much impact will he really have? And how big of an upgrade is he on the guy he's replacing, Kevin Burnett? Pro Football Focus graded Burnett as the NFL's fourth-best 4-3 outside linebacker in 2012. Wheeler was sixth.

Nevertheless, Wheeler's $5.2 million annual average makes him the eighth highest paid 4-3 outside linebacker in the league.

Bad GMs like Marty Hurney, Gene Smith, Tim Ruskell, and Jeff Ireland pay big money to 4-3 linebackers. Good GMs like John Schneider and Les Snead find them in the second and third waves of free agency, or in the middle to late rounds of the draft."

I have a friend who is a miserable Dolphins fan, and the Ruskell vibe I get off of Ireland is spooky. The three veteran players who wanted to form a player's council on Hard Knocks last year are all gone now, including Jake Long. Between moving tackles and installing ZBS to overpaying linebackers, the Ruskell vibe coming off of Ireland is unmistakably stinky.

Ireland is on record as saying he only wants to spend big dollars on "core" positions. I have trouble seeing Wheeler as a core position.

See, you misheard. He didn't say core, he said "scorned". We're not really sure what it means, other than not really being a football term, but we already knew it was a bit suspect that he's ever seen a game.

Scottemojo wrote:I have a friend who is a miserable Dolphins fan, and the Ruskell vibe I get off of Ireland is spooky. The three veteran players who wanted to form a player's council on Hard Knocks last year are all gone now, including Jake Long. Between moving tackles and installing ZBS to overpaying linebackers, the Ruskell vibe coming off of Ireland is unmistakably stinky.

Ireland is on record as saying he only wants to spend big dollars on "core" positions. I have trouble seeing Wheeler as a core position.

yeah, I have a cousin who is also a Dolphins fan, and we both agree Ireland is the worst GM in football